What Was Jonathan Swifts “Modest Proposal” For Helping The Poor People Of Ireland?
The full title of this 1729 pamphlet is “A modest Proposal for preventing the Children of poor People in Ireland, from being a Burden to their Parents or Country; and for making them beneficial to the Publick.” This is an exact mimicry of the usual style of such pamphlets, as is the opening of the Proposal in which the “author” laments the desperate conditions of the Irish poor. The shock comes further on, when the pamphlet casually remarks that, obviously, the best solution would be for Irish peasants to breed and fatten their children in order to sell them to the rich as food. He goes on to give recipes for cooking a one-year-old infant. Eventually his point becomes clear; the English landlords are already devouring Ireland, so they might as well do it thoroughly. “A Modest Proposal” has become a classic of political satire and its basic method – taking an existing situation and carrying it to its logical conclusion – has been much imitated.
